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Arc 1: Northern Storms
The Godflesh storyline begins at Marpenoth the 1st (October). The year is 1479 by Dale Reckoning, placing it exactly 96 years after the Spellplague. The account of events starts in the first hours of the day, in the town of Valladilene. Part 1. Sunblade Day 1: Fendrell Alhaine asks for news of the Captain Sunblade's fate from Kar Bitterblade. With the captain still not back, the guards follow Kar’s orders. Vincent and Bel Mikal reside at the Rover and mingle with the locals, posing as pottery merchants. Sir Lymond follows Valdar’s orders and follows a militia patrol for a few hours. Algardo operates as a town agent for the Earl. He performs tasks and arranges for meetings when needed, as Wilkinson does. Vincent and Bel go by the northern herders’ houses and farms, meeting with Gawin Olmrik and his wife, who Vincent recognized by accident as one of the four thieves he was after. By noon, no word came from the north of the captain. Earl orders for 5 men to be sent to each of the villages and bring back news. In the evening, Fendrell and Valdar dine together at the church of the Golden Tree. Day 2: An official letter arrives for Valdar and Fendrell, depicting that some Initiate Navarre will arrive in Valladilene sometime until the 15th of Marpenoth. Fendrell summons the Town Council (Fendrell, Valdar, Borris the innkeeper of the Black Goose Inn and, Seilmar of the Black Hawk Trade Company) to inform them of this. The council disagrees on whether they should tell the people or not, and Fendrell leaves that to their judgement. Valdar informs the people that visited the church for that day’s holy ceremony, and these people spread the word through gossip. Fendrell sends a report to Crimmor, informing the Duke of the missing captain. Algardo meets Bel at the Rover, and notices the Enclave’s emerald signet. Algardo asks for Bel to meet him at the Alhaine manor. Sir Lymond encounters Wraine Magadash outside the church. Bel and Vincent meet sir Lucas Myladan outside the Rover, who also seems to recognize the Enclave signet. Kar receives news that the captain’s patrol got lost on the Rat’s Teeth with no evidence of where they could be. Bel decides to leave, afraid of his life and identity. He moves north and into the eastern woods, where Darkwood bandits ambush him. They steal all he owns, beat him senseless and abandon him half-a-mile southern of the Rover at night, where the guard finds him. They left his undergarments, his spellbook and a black crescent brooch as a signature. Kar takes him to a cell where he interrogates him, with Algardo present. Kar has Vincent brought to him (after he tried to avoid it once). Vincent and Bel end up in two separate cells where they sleep. Day 3: Fendrell asks for the two prisoners. Kar sends 2 guards to escort them to the manor. Sir Lymond sees this. Fendrell releases the two. Fendrell also meets a messenger that informs the Earl of a Corporal’s arrival by evening. By noon, news of Gawin’s murder (stake in the heart and decapitated) is out. The body is taken and burnt at the church and the farm is seized. Vincent spends the day at the Rover and Bel at the Black Goose Inn. The corporal is late. Fendrell and Algardo attend the funeral pyre. Fendrell and Valdar have an angry discussion. Kar sends men to check on the corporal, down south. Sir Lymond, strangely sick on bed, vomits to release himself of torment. He discovers that a tiny tentacle’s part came out of him. He keeps the piece. Day 4: Fendrell calls for a Town Council of War, adding sir Lymond to the group. He informs the rest that he is to go north himself and look for the captain. Sir Lucas informs Fendrell (based on obscure clues and sources) that Wraine Magadash killed Gawin, and offers a possible future support to the Earl, before leaving for Crimmor. News of the corporal’s death arrives. Kar and Fendrell arrange for the burial and the report back to Crimmor. Sir Lymond speaks with a lower priest of the tentacle, with no results. Sir Lymond,under orders, joins Fendrell to his quest north. Fendrell summons Kar, Vincent, Bel and Algardo and informs them of the task of going north. Bel speaks of his wizardly practices and Vincent also of that and of his illegal weapon possession. The six agree to meet by dawn outside of Valladilene to ride north. Part 2. The Darkwood Company Day 5: Group meets north of Valladilene. Vincent gets the sense of devil presence, by a mild headache and a sense of unease. Bel gets his spellbook back from Kar. They ride through the day to Dun’s Well. They eat and sleep at the barracks. Day 6: They wake at 4 in the morning. They walk the distance to Rat’s Teeth. After scanning the maze for about half an hour, they discover a resting place and have a skirmish with the Darkwood Company. One Darkwood bandit escapes. They rest for half an hour and then Fendrell picks up the trail to the west. They walk into Northwood and follow it. At midday, they fight a pack of wolves away and go on their way. Dispute among Algardo and sir Lymond concerning use of magic and weapons without official permission. By nightfall, they exit the woods and cross the plains to the Giant’s Foot hills. They camp with Kar and sir Lymond guarding. Day 7: The party enters the foothills and scans through the area. Eventually, they find Elyas’ Rest. After searching the inside, the Darkwood seem to trap them in, using a cave-in mechanism. Vincent remained outside and moved further away to avoid combat. Six Darkwood guarded the exit but Bel scattered them back into their lair after burning one bandit with a conjured sphere of fire. The trapped five manage to remove some rocks and escape. They all move into the hideout. Unable to cross the rift, they move deeper into the complex by taking another tunnel by the entrance. After crossing a few chambers, the party fights a swarm of monstrous rats, which left Bel wounded and diseased. Fendrell and Algardo search the complex further. They trigger a rolling stone trap and Fendrell injures his left leg. They discover a bridged cave chamber. They meet the rest and return to the rift. They manage to use the bridge and walk across. Vincent stays behind to care after Bel. The remaining four encounter and defeat five Darkwood and apparently their leader. They bring Vincent and Bel to these chambers. They discover gold and take an unremarkable dagger, the bracers that the Darkwood leader wore, and a pair of potions in wooden containers. The party finds out where Captain Deregos Sunblade and Hamatayn Therun, who are both naked, wounded and unconscious. They rest for the night. Part 3. The Raven Prince of Shadowfell Day 8: Bel recovers though fatigued. Vincent remains with the prisoners and the rest move down into the bridged chamber. They destroy the first bridge and are attacked by a monstrous spider. Bel uses magic and fends off the creature, which left Fendrell unconscious through bites and a fall from a plateau. Sir Lymond's divine healing and the use of one potion revives Fendrell. His left leg recovers from being broken but is still cracked and in pain. They move into the following chamber, presumably a tomb of a barbarian Raven Prince lord. They take the contained treasure and they break the totem tombstone in parts so as to move it, and a powerful otherworldly entity makes its presence through a chilling howl and dozens of shadowy, insubstantial ravens. The party places the items back to their place, and one raven follows Fendrell around, who was the one that first picked the totem. The party returns to the Darkwood leader’s chamber and search the other exit. Vincent and Kar bring the horses around to the front and the rest move the prisoners there to meet them. Deregos momentarily wakes in shock and falls unconscious again. The party travels back to Dun’s Well through the night. Day 9: By morning and exhausted, the party reaches Dun’s Well. They camp outside. Kar and Algardo take the prisoners in the village to receive treatment. They are directed to Valladilene or Crimmor. They return and Fendrell sends them to Valladilene, with the Darkwood gold. Sir Lymond gets food from the village and the four rests in the country. Fendrell is unable to sleep or revive, probably some effect of the shadowy raven. They discuss possibilities and Fendrell decides to return to Elyas’ Rest. Fendrell sends a letter through sir Lymond from Dun’s Well to Valladilene, asking Kar and Algardo to meet them back into the caves. Algardo, while in Valladilene, learns from Wilkinson that the Earl should not return to the town. The four ride to the caves at night while Kar and Algardo sleep and ride back north by dawn. Day 10: At noon, the four arrive back to the tomb. A host of ghostly barbarians appears escorting the Raven Prince. He gives the armor Boriagriss to Fendrell and commands him to avenge him or die, by slaying the Selemchaunt descendant. The group leaves and rests outside of the cave and at night they reunite with Algardo and Kar. Day 11: Fendrell almost sleeps through the day but wakes up when sir Lymond shakes him, after whispering words as if he had a conversation in his dream. After a while, sir Lucas seems to step into Fendrell’s body and speaks to the rest that they must take the High Priest Valdar out of Valladilene for he was corrupted but is now repented. The party starts riding south by noon. Part 4. The Purging of Valladilene Day 12: By night, Algardo infiltrates the town to reach the mansion, sir Lymond sneaks into the Golden Tree while Kar, visits the barracks. They all discover a shut down town and some strange guards posted with the locals. Algardo roams hidden in the streets and discovers that no door knock provides an answer. He returns to the river meeting point. Kar is escorted by one of the strange soldiers to the Alhaine mansion where he sees the Initiate’s camp on the courtyard. He meets the Wizard himself, who informs Kar that the population of Valladilene is purged from evil though the clergy and the guard will remain unscathed. Kar later on goes to the barracks and seeks for former captain Sunblade, only to find him gone to Crimmor as a retired captain now. The soldiers inform Kar that he himself is now captain, but Kar resigns. He gathers his belongings and leaves town in secret. Sir Lymond visits the temple; a guard informs him of the situation and escorts him to Valdar’s door. In their meeting, sir Lymond learns of the conspiracy and of the big plan concerning the Wizards’ schism, the Darkwood’s role and of a devilish entity from a Valdar full of regret. He asks of the paladin to end his life but he refuses. Finally, Valdar kills himself with a dagger in his neck. Sir Lymond picks up some hidden paperwork and messages, ten potions and 100 gold pieces and leaves town. Later on, the party meets by the river comparing their discoveries. After a few minutes, two riders revealed to be sir Lucas Myladan and a moon elf named Qual Vallarie arrive. They exchange introductions and sir Lucas sits down with them and explains more of the situation concerning shifting, the devil, Myrkul, the vampire and the death knight, the Sothillisian War and the Cowled Wizards, the Emerald Enclave, the Darkwood, and of the assassins. They then decide to move north and seek what the lost Initiate was after; an arcane node. Kar leaves for the south to deliver a letter to his uncle in Crimmor. Day 13: While the party is camped in the wood, Vincent asks of sir Lucas to find traces of his lost tutor (which later that day proved futile). They also chatted and ruled out that the devil of interest in these parts is Asmodeus himself. Vincent also chatted with Qual Vallarie and found out that his grandfather Winterbourne took the demon hunter’s swords but traces were lost during the Sothillisian War. Kar returns after he delivers the letter. They rest and by dawn they ride north. Day 14: They ride through the day and camp on the country out of Dun’s Well. The raven gives no more trouble to Fendrell as he grows accustomed to it and wants revenge on Amn too. Part 5. Battle of Stonecross Day 15: They ride through the day. By dusk they reach Stonecross which is under attack. After a fierce battle with goblins, orcs and a tough troll, they slay the raiders. Most of the village is burnt and the surviving few are furious. They quench the fires and Lymond leads a ceremonial pyre for the dead. They all sleep in the ruins. Day 16: They ride to Northwood and meet with the Cirdaen by night. Rhun Wolfsmane, who leads the other three, provides his men to escort the survivors to the east. He remains in the area with a few more others, informing Fendrell and sir Lucas of the orcs’ movement due to giant skirmishes on the range’s peaks. The party rests. Day 17: The party travels back to Stonecross and by night they reach it. They rest there. Part 6. Mount Jelegstrum Day 18: The party follows the path that snakes around Mount Jelegstrum, the southernmost mountain of the Cloud Peaks. On the first days evening, a harpy followed by a swarm of crows attacks. Qual Vallarie recognizes her for an Ithoi Halemeth, a huntress of the the fair folk, dead-to-be. The fight with the predator was fierce and eventually (as the elf felt) Qual Vallarie fell before her claws. The party managed to fend the beast away and carried the elf's body away from the scene. On the coming night, sir Lymond burned Qual Vallarie in an informal ceremony. Fendrell falls asleep and fades away to a dark dream. He saw the very spot the camped on, but distorted, hazy and dark. He tried to move about but then woke up. Sir Lucas informed him that he touched Arhiod, the dreamworld, though he went too far - too close to Shadowfell. At the same time, Bel attempted to cast a spell of light, but fabricated quite powerfully. The blinding light filled the cave they camped in, his body was powerful and his eyes glowed a powerful milky white. Though sweet and tempting, the mage discarded the sensation and cancelled the spell, returning everything back to normal. Sir Lucas suspects they are close to the node and its effects. Day 19: The party reaches the summit and start crossing the high ranges of the mountain. Snow and frigid winds fill the locale. By nightfall they leave the frost plains behind and reach the outskirts of a forest. They move in and rest under the shadows. Day 20: The party crosses the dank forest and by midday they reach a pathway climbing up a summit. Through scouting, they see a host of orcs, goblins and trolls camping on the top. After a short discussion they decide to fall back into the lower forestland and wait for the orcs to possibly move. By nightfall, they witness another great host of the same kind of beasts, carrying different banners of red and brown, moving up the summit (coming from where the party initially came from). The party follows them and a great battle between the two hosts erupts on the summit. After a few minutes, the battle leaves the original orcs of the Hellfang tribe victorious and thinned as far as their numbers are concerned. The party decides to make its move and they charge up the pathway to engage the beasts. The fight was terrible, many foes were slain, but finally the party fell. Vincent managed to escape from the orcs, diving recklessly down the cliff's face. The party was taken captive back to the camp save for Vincent who crashed down the cliff. Day 21, 22, 23: Unaccounted days. Vincent was found by the Darkwatch on the slopes; he was picked up and healed. The rest were half-dead, dragged further deep in the mountain ravines and slopes, to be held captive in the Hellfangs' camp, surrounded by more than 200 orcs and goblins. Part 7. The Host of Hellfangs Day 24: The company wakes up in the captivity of the Hellfangs, surrounded by spears in flames piercing the ground in a cage-like circle. The area is a big camp within a dry valley's walls and their prison is a patch of dirt. They are guarded by orcs. They have poor meals like raw vegetables or rat meat. The goblin shaman takes notice of Bel as he was attempting magic to quench the flames on the spears. The orcs are ordered to bring in Bel to the shaman's cave where he is quite shortly interrogated in the goblin-speech, which Bel did not understand. The shaman had Bel's left hand chopped off the wrist for the goblin to wear with a chain around his neck. Bel passes out and is carried back in the prison by the same orcs. Day 25: Bel wakes up, fairly weakened. The company discusses an escape. The best part of the Hellfangs' numbers move out of the camp on a march, leaving behind a relatively small group of orcs and goblins. The company makes its escape and at the same time Vincent along with Rhun and Galad Wolfsmane ran down a cliffside to attempt a rescue. There's a long fight in the broken badlands of the camp and the party is victorious. Galad died during the skirmish, but the party does not pay much attention to that, being relieved from the fact that they escaped the cage. Rhun is greatly angered and drops Galad's body down an endless chasm, along with his properties. He departs right after that and climbs out of the valley. The party discovers some interesting relics in the warlord's cave, picking some of them for their own. They discover the captured white dragon pet, shackled in a deeper cave. Vincent converses with the beast to draw information from it (to the rest of the group's dislike), but the beast appears too stupid or too stubborn. Vincent feeds orc flesh to the dragon and in return the wyrm tells him that the node they are looking for is his lair and that if released he can fly them there. The dragon is eventually released and flies away alone, for the company did not trust his proposal. In the evening the company leaves for the south (following the orc host), presuming that way would lead them closer to the Goldplains. Along the way they realized that the path was a narrow pass through a ravine and that they would eventually stumble upon the host, so they turned west up the mountain range. They walk through the thick forests for a few hours until nightfall, cold and exhaustion best them. They camp in a shady forest grove. Part 8. Partings Day 25: At dawn, Fendrell is clearly moving further away from the events that occur, and the influence of the Raven Prince takes hold. He decides to leave the rest behind and journey to Athkatla in search of the Selemchaunt descendant. Kar Bitterblade follows his lord and sir Lucas Myladan also goes along, wishing to keep an eye on the powers hidden in the Earl. The company separates. Hence, follows the accounts of sir Lymond Vickary, Vincent Winterbourne, Algardo Raguelez and Bel Mikal. They walk west through the day and rest in a thicket. * The accounts of the Company continue here.